The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
G. LUDWIGS, the author of the treatise _Wilhelm Walloth_, Leipsic, 1891,
Verlag von Wilhelm Friedrich, had in so far the advantage of Puschmann
and Beck, that he was not placed under the necessity of originally
demonstrating what the actual state of the nervous system of his hero
was, from his works. This condition had already been established by
expert physicians in a much talked of trial before the District Court of
Leipsic for circulating obscene publications. Ludwigs was able therefore
to proceed immediately with his problem of ascertaining the extent to
which a diseased state of the nervous system had effect in Walloth’s
novels and poems. His discussion of this last question possesses great
interest for the psychologist, although the reader will find considerable
difficulty in accommodating his thoughts to Ludwigs’s occasionally very
singular style. Setting aside the odd expressions of Ludwigs, we may
say that there is exhibited in a pre-eminent degree in the writings of
Walloth, first, what the physicians call hyperæsthesia, and by this
is meant not only an excessive sensitiveness of the senses but also—a
condition that is connected with the last—an extraordinary intensity of
the emotional activity. Secondly, are found numberless bold associations
of ideas which are much better known to the physician than to the
æsthetician.
Unfortunately Walloth is not the only one of the representatives of
“young Germany,” in whose works the characters of disease appear in such
intensity, and the circumstance that books of this class are bought in
such numbers and read in still greater, places the tastes and sentiments
of a large portion of the educated German public in a questionable light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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